Marianne Nowottny’s covers album under her Marzanna alias takes on some serious heavyweights like Kate Bush, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Siouxsie and the Banshees and somehow makes them all sound like her own creations. After a brutal five-year recording process that included multiple hard drive crashes, she finally got this thing finished.
Her voice is the real star here. She doesn’t try to imitate the originals but rebuilds each song from scratch. Gordon Raphael’s work on “I’m Deranged” and “You’re My Thrill” gives those tracks a different edge entirely. The German duet “Stella Maris” with Christian Corea is an interesting choice that works better than you’d expect.
Katie Lo’s harp on “Both Sides Now” changes the whole mood of that song, and the orchestral work from Kathleen Arndt, Gita Asri, and Paul Cecchetti adds layers without overwhelming Nowottny’s vocals. She’s been doing covers her whole career, everything from Yazoo to Johnny Cash in her live shows, but this is her first time really diving deep into the format.
The album proves that covers don’t have to be safe choices when you’ve got the chops to pull them off, and you seriously need to follow Marianne Nowottny on Spotify and Instagram because her posts about the chaotic recording process and collaborations with musicians from around the world give you the full picture of how this ambitious project actually came together.
